Chef Guy Vaknin and his environmentally-conscious group City Roots Hospitality have a new concept heading to Williamsburg. Reverie will open in an 1,800-square-foot space at 135 Metropolitan Avenue, with plans to soft open later this spring.
Reverie will serve as a dessert and cocktail bar with an innovative, unique menu. As with most of Vaknin’s concepts — including Beyond Sushi, which skyrocketed Vaknin into the culinary spotlight — Reverie will be plant-based.
“It’s out of the box and not like something that’s been done before, like a lot of the things we’ve done in the company,” Vaknin told What Now New York.
Vaknin said he has had the idea in the back of his mind for some time. He has always been fascinated by desserts and wanted to incorporate a dessert concept into his growing vegan empire. However, he did not see a pathway toward making it happen until he found pastry chef Makenna Hale, who is assisting Vaknin in spearheading the Reverie concept.
“What we decided to create is a concept where the dessert is the entree, and we have some savory appetizers,” Vaknin said. “We’re taking inspiration from things in nature and pushing the boundary of what pastry could be.”
The nature-inspired menu features sweet entrees like The Moon (yuzu cheesecake, coconut sable crust, whipped mango ricotta and parmesan “moon dust”) and The Sun (brown butter tartlet with almond orange blossom cream, white chocolate passionfruit mousse and a passionfruit glaze). Savory appetizer options include a cheese plate, squash gratin and mushroom sliders. There will also be a creative cocktail program, beer, wine, mocktails, coffee beverages and loose-leaf tea.
In terms of design, expect a comforting, spacious atmosphere with high ceilings and aromas of pastries baking from the kitchen. The restaurant will seat about 60 customers, and there will be a long bar seating 12.
Vaknin said the goal is to deliver an experience that is different from a regular restaurant.
“For me personally as the owner and chef, it’s the pinnacle of what I was trying to do: to get to a point where I can allow someone to take over and create and execute,” Vaknin said. “I believe that this will be a game-changer for us. It’s an out-there idea, but just like Beyond Sushi was an out-there idea, I think this one is going to be wonderful.”
Eventually, Vaknin hopes to incorporate a daytime element where customers will be able to buy pastries and desserts to-go.
Reverie joins a lineup of other sustainability-conscious concepts in City Roots Hospitality’s portfolio, including Beyond Sushi, Anixi, Coletta, Sentir, Willow and Le Basque.
As of now, Vaknin says they are not actively working on any new projects and are focusing on making Reverie a success. This will be the third restaurant opening in the last 13 months for City Roots, which opened Sentir last spring and opened Le Basque in late fall of 2024. However, Vaknin joked that he tends “to get bored really quickly,” so City Roots Hospitality’s work is far from done.
“We’re going to take a step back, open this one up and make sure we do all the work we need to do to make sure the ship is sailing,” Vaknin said.
